


In Love With Me(ow)

by lolzornacho



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, jeno is dumb, this is so bad i apologized this was SO RUSHED towards the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21819394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolzornacho/pseuds/lolzornacho
Summary: Jeno loses his cat, Nana, and has been searching for it everywhere, even giving out flyers for his cat. At the same time, Jaemin found a cat in front of his house, and had been wondering who's the master of this cat. A week after, Jaemin received a flyer about a missing cat, and decides to contact the person on the flyer.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 88
Collections: ’00 FIC FEST: ROUND ONE





	In Love With Me(ow)

It always starts with History class. It’s always history class and his shitty, evil ass, 60 year-old professor that starts the series of unfortunate events that happens in Jeno’s day. 

It starts with his stupid professor absolutely roasting and absolutely annihilating his history paper (in Jeno’s opinion, what he produced was top tier, Immanuel Hsu level historical analysis, so the professor can suck his dick) till the point he was reduced to tears. Then it was a random dickhead who spilled a cup of steaming hot coffee onto his favorite white shirt, and ran away without an apology. Then it’s Mark Lee cancelling their plans which Jeno was looking forward to the entire week because of his stupid boyfriend who goes by the name of Lee Donghyuck. 

As a struggling university student who was 0.2 seconds away from a mental breakdown, Jeno just wants to cry into Nana’s fur and complain to Nana about everything that has been going wrong in his life. Also to pet Nana, and listen to Nana’s soothing purrs until he fell asleep. Was that too much to ask for?

Nana is a 5 year old, grey British Shorthair that Jeno adopted from an animal shelter about three years ago. It was love at first sight, starting from when the grey cat meowed its way into Jeno’s heart. Ultimately, Jeno, with his big, weak, heart, decided he absolutely could not abandon his precious cat when he moved into university, so he illegally smuggled Nana into his and Mark’s dorm. 

Everyone, especially Jeno, absolutely adored Nana. Absolutely no one, not even evil who takes a human form in Donghyuck, could resist Nana’s charms. Absolutely nobody could resist the friendliest cat that never hissed, who welcomed absolutely anyone and always begged you to pet him no matter who you were. 

At the thought of his precious cat, a small smile formed at Jeno’s face, and he even managed to forget about his favourite white t-shirt that he was going to have to give up on because there was no laundry detergent was ever going to get that big ugly, brown stain out. 

Jeno reached into his pockets and fished out his keys. Turning the knob, he poked his head in, fully expecting Nana to come by his side immediately to affectionately bump his head against Jeno’s leg. 

Jeno was greeted by silence. That’s weird, Jeno thought to himself. Nana was usually an extremely affectionate and extroverted cat who meowed and purred loudly just at the sight of Jeno, and never failed to greet Jeno or Mark, his roommate, whenever they came back. 

Maybe Nana is currently going through his rebellious teenage phase. 

“Nana!” Jeno called out. He was greeted by silence once again. Frowning, Jeno walked into each room, calling out Nana’s name, searching desperately in every corner for the grey cat. 

“Nana?”

Jeno walked over to his drawer, fishing out a small bag of Nana’s favourite treats and began shaking the bag lightly, hoping that the sound would attract the grey cat over.  
No response. 

“Meow, meow? Meow?” Jeno resorted to his last plan, meowing into his apartment in hopes that Nana would somehow appear and meow back at him. This always worked. 

After five minutes of meowing to himself with response, Jeno began to panic. 

Where the fuck was Nana? Where the fuck could Nana have ventured out to? What if another cat came into their dorm and lured Nana out into the scary world? What if an eagle came in and swooped Nana away? Jeno never taught Nana any defensive skills. 

Jeno squeezed his eyes shut, taking in a deep breath and counted to ten. 

“Fuck,” He muttered to himself, feeling panic rising up in him.

His hands trembling, Jeno slowly made his way towards the door, using every single ounce of his willpower to not burst into tears this exact moment and power walked out the door to look for his cat. 

Jeno ran everywhere just to find Nana. The normally shy and introverted Jeno did not hesitate before shoving pictures of Nana into everyone and anyone’s faces, asking if they have seen his beloved cat. Jeno was so desperate he even asked his evil 60 year-old history professor who made Jeno cry in front of a lecture full of about 100 people which of course, earned him a stern glare which made Jeno quiver.

After approximately 2 hours and no sign of Nana, Jeno wandered to the science garden, where he once brought Nana for a nature photoshoot. In a mental state of panic, Jeno texted his group chat, begging for help.

JeNO: this is an emergency come asap rn please  
JeNO: rly serious please please come now

Markly:  
shit r u ok??? Where r u we’re coming what happened?

Injuniee:  
bro wat

Hyuckie:  
wat LOL

JeNO:  
NANA’S FUCKING MISSING I CAN’T FIND HIM ANYWHERE COME NOW SCIENCE GARNDE

Defeated, and with his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach, Jeno plopped down onto a nearby bench. Jeno stares into the assemble of flowers and leaves, the only thing on his mind being Nana. 

Jeno feels a lump starts to form in his throat and his eyes started to sting. His bottom lip starts to tremble as he felt something wet on his cheeks.

Taking in a shaky breath, Jeno unlocked his phone to check the time, only to be greeted with a lock screen picture of him cradling Nana in his arms. Jeno takes in a shaky breath, before promptly bursting into tears.

\--

Jaemin felt conflicted. Out of everything that was bound to happen on this day, he did not expect to find a slightly overweight looking grey cat to be circling around his legs, stopping him from entering his dorm building. 

Jaemin sighed, crouching down and beckoned for the cat to come closer. Even though Jaemin was a dog fanatic at heart, his big heart loved all animals and obviously, he could not resist a fat, fluffy grey cat who wouldn’t stop following him.

Once Jaemin crouched down, the cat immediately sprinted forward, the sound of its paws against the concrete floor echoing in Jaemin’s ears, absolutely melting his heart. The cat bumped its head against Jaemin’s kneecaps, and leaned into his warm touch. 

Jaemin was always a sucker for cute things.

“Who are you?” Jaemin asked softly, scratching the cat’s chin. The cat lifted its chin up to let Jaemin get better access in response. 

Judging from its slightly overweight appearance, the cat did not seem like a stray cat. Sighing, Jaemin decided to let the cat be, letting it wander back to its owner who has obviously been feeding the cat extremely well. 

Jaemin stood up, brushing off the silver strands of cat fur which littered all across his black shirt, before the cat ran forward, putting its paws on Jaemin’s shoes, and let out a broken, soft meow. Soon after, he felt the cat brushing up against his legs.

“You’re so cute, and I really want to keep you,” Jaemin pouted, in which the cat merely purred louder in response, its green eyes shutting in comfort. “But what about your owner? Your owner must be worried sick for you,”

As if picking up on Jaemin’s hesitance, the grey cat rubbed its face against Jaemin’s hands, begging to be pet even more. 

“Please stop,” Jaemin murmured, with no bite in his words. “You’re gonna make me want to kidnap you even more,”. 

Jaemin stayed like that with the grey cat for a few more minutes, before looking around and deciding that the cat’s owner probably wasn’t going to come anytime soon. And Jaemin could not stand the idea of leaving such an adorable cat out in the dangerous night.

“Ugh, okay, fine! I’ll take you in, come on,” Jaemin scooped the anonymous cat into his arms, wincing when he felt the impact of the cat’s weight. 

“Jeez, you’re heavy,” Jaemin huffed. “But who cares, right? It’s 2019, be proud of your body!”. 

“Oh baby, my son, my precious son,” Jaemin cooed as he brought the cat home, who wouldn’t stop purring and meowing in Jaemin’s arms all the way back to his dorm.

Once he arrived to his dorm, Jaemin released the cat from his arms and let it roam around, exploring its new environment. 

“Felix!” Jaemin absentmindedly called out the first name he could think of. As if it was its name, the cat turned around and pattered towards Jaemin. He decided that the cat’s new name would be Felix. 

Felix came up to Jaemin, stretching his paws up and clawing at his jeans, meowing loudly.  
“You hungry?” The cat meowed in response. 

Jaemin scurried to his dorm’s cabinet, eventually finding an old (hopefully not too old) can of tuna, hastily opened it and set it on the ground for Felix.

As he watched Felix bury his face into his food, clearly too excited to eat as Felix made a mess, splattering bits of tuna all over the floor, Jaemin decided he was in love. And was fully willing to become a slave for Felix, as he should.

\--

Back at the science garden, Jeno was still crying, and has been like that for about half an hour, his clueless friends having no idea how to help or comfort Jeno. Even though the group of friends constantly bullied each other, they could not stand to see the usually smiley Jeno with such sadness in his eyes.

Mark who had his arm slung over Jeno’s shoulders, has been softly rubbing Jeno’s back, worry written all over his face the whole time. Mark looked up at the others with wide eyes, urging them to do something to help. 

Jeno, rubbing at his eyes with his hands, unlocked his phone, opening his album filled with pictures of Nana and pouted, stroking his phone, hoping that Nana would magically show up in front of him and everything will be fine again.

“What if something happens to Nana?” Jeno hiccups, eyes cast downward, staring intently on the floor. 

“Uh, well,” Mark stammers, grabbing tissue frantically from his bag and dabbing at Jeno’s wet eyes. “Have you checked everywhere? Even the toilets? The showers? It’s weird, but you can never guess anything with cats.” Mark questions. 

“Y-yes! I told y-you! I looked everywhere! I even asked some random girl to go into the girl’s bathroom to see if Nana was there! I really can’t find him anywhere!” Jeno exclaimed, voice still trembling.

“I’m so fucking sad,” Jeno reached out for Mark, resting his head on Mark’s shoulder. The corners of Jeno’s mouth turned downwards as water filled his eyes once again.

Silence filled the four of them, Mark threading his fingers through Jeno’s hair softly in an attempt to comfort the still crying boy.

“Look, Jeno, it’s going to b-” Renjun started with a sigh, before being cut off by Jeno.

“I don’t know what to do,” Jeno suddenly proclaimed in a loud voice, gripping at his hair with his hands. “I guess I’ll fucking die! That would be a blessing in disguise, actually, this is literally the worst day of my life-”

“Jeno, stop. You’re just being overdramatic now,” Renjun cut him off, clutching at Jeno’s wrist, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Jeno fell silent, his shoulders slumping down.

“Look, just…, stop crying and calm down, okay?” Renjun’s voice softened as he put his hand on top of Jeno’s. “I don’t know where Nana could be right now, but there’s no way he would’ve ran off campus, so stop worrying so much,”

“Yeah! And maybe it’s a good thing that Nana isn’t constantly being fed now, he is looking a bit overweight these days,” Donghyuck claps and laughs at his own comment, in an attempt to lighten the mood. He abruptly stops when he sees that nobody except for him was laughing.

“Shut up, you’re so fucking lame,” Renjun rolled his eyes at Donghyuck, who just raised a middle finger at Renjun’s general direction. 

“I-I just want Nana back,” Jeno pouted, fiddling with his fingers, sadness evident in his quiet voice. “The dorm feels lonely without Nana.”

“Jeno, you big fucking baby, come here,” Donghyuck pulls Jeno in, wrapping his arms around Jeno’s shoulder, and Jeno buries his head in the crook of Donghyuck’s neck.

“Look, why don’t we make flyers for Nana?” Mark spoke up, flashing a small smile at Jeno. The three of them whipped their heads around to stare at Mark, urging him to go on. “Uh, I mean, some passerby has probably taken in Nana, so why not? Right guys?” Mark cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. 

“But what if the person doesn’t want to return Nana? A-and decides to keep Nana forever?” Jeno hiccups, looking up at Mark with watery eyes. 

“Jeno! Shut up and stop worrying! They’re going to return Nana!” Donghyuck shouts, gripped at Jeno’s shoulders and shakes him violently. “Besides, if they don’t, Renjun and I will track that person down and beat him up,” At that, Jeno a small finally appeared on Jeno’s face within the past hour, a small sound of laughter escaping his mouth. 

“Gosh, you’re such a dumbass,” Renjun scoffs, but with no real bite to his words. He reaches up to wipe at Jeno’s tears, and Jeno slightly feels that things might be okay.  
\--

The next few days went by quickly, and Jeno doesn’t even know what’s going on. Except that he was determined to find Nana and get him back to safety as soon as possible.

He sends out a digital version of the flyer to essentially, the entire school with the subject line “My Missing cat!!!”. Jeno figures it was better to do it this way, since it was more environmentally friendly, and he wasn’t killing any trees.

After sending out the email to the entire university, Jeno still feels unsettled. So he heads to the library and decides to print out 100 flyers to stick around school. 

Jeno mentally sends an apology to the trees and promises to purchase a metal straw later as he heads to the library.

The librarian glares at him as the sound of the printer disturbs the silence of the library, and Jeno feels slightly bad as he reads the poster preaching about saving paper. 

But he needs to do whatever, anything, even if it meant single handedly destroying the earth, in order to get back Nana. 

Holding a huge stack of flyers, Jeno rushes out the door and calls for his friends to help stick the flyers around the school. 

\--

Jaemin was walking back from class, mindlessly scrolling through the #dogs tag on Instagram, when a notification popped up, telling him that he had received a new email.  
He clicks into the email with the subject line of “My Missing Cat!!!” and began reading. 

After a long, seemingly panicked and frantic paragraph describing their cat, the sender attached a picture of his cat. 

He found himself looking right at an extremely adorable picture of Felix. 

Ah, Jaemin thought to himself, so this is Felix’s real owner. 

Jaemin felt a wave of sadness in his chest as he realized that his time with Felix was running out. He pockets his phone and sighs, but it was about him he returned the cat.

Jaemin silently prayed that he and Felix’s owner would somehow become best friends so he could visit Felix frequently and give him lots of love and affection. 

Jaemin looked up, only to be greeted by the sight of more flyers.

“MISSING CAT” the title was written in a bold red. Below it, the owner has attached yet another picture of Felix. 

This time, it was a picture of Felix and his owner and oh-. 

I’m not gay I’m not gay I’m not gay I’m not gay- Jaemin chanted to himself in his head.  
He was cute. Like, really, cute. 

Okay, maybe I’m a little gay.

The owner had the most precious smile Jaemin has ever seen, his eyes turning into tiny crescents and his face buried into Felix’s thick fur. The boy had the softest, chestnut coloured Jaemin has ever seen and he just wants to run his hair through it. 

Jaemin was about to explode from the amount of cuteness radiating from the picture of Felix and the owner (who knew Felix could get even cuter?) when he caught the eye of the owner’s name and his number attached onto the flyer. 

Lee Jeno, huh. And he even offered money to whoever found Felix, nice. 

Jaemin ripped down the flyer, folding it carefully before putting it into his pocket. 

He took the flyer even though there was a digital copy in his inbox perfectly convenient for him to read, but Jaemin just needed the picture of Jeno and Felix for um, scientific purposes.  
He quickly keys Jeno’s contact into his phone, hoping he would be able to get to know the boy better sometime in the near future. 

\--

Jeno and his group of friends were at the library, a rare occasion where each of them were actually engrossed in whatever assignment they had going on.

This time, he was determined to show his 60 year-old evil professor that he, Lee Jeno, 18 year old History major, was indeed very capable of showing that the May 4th Movement was a turning point in Chinese history. 

And yes, he was very determined to show his stupid professor that he could in fact, conduct god level historical analysis.

None of them spoke a word, and the library was for once, silent. Even the normally stressed and angry librarian looks at peace for once.

That was until, Jeno’s phone went off with a notification, indicating that he had a new message.

Jeno was going to ignore the message, merely glancing at it before he took a double take.

“Hi, Lee Jeno, right? I saw your flyer about your cat, and he is currently with me…” Jeno’s eyes widened as his eyes scanned through each word and he couldn’t help but let out a shriek. 

“Oh my God!” Jeno let out a loud gasp, which prompted everyone in the library to look at them. Jeno’s face reddens, and ducked his head down as a silent apology.

“What?” Renjun tuts at Jeno, who couldn’t stop grinning at his phone, the signature moon-eyed smile back on his face. Renjun snaps his fingers in front of Jeno’s face.

“Someone has Nana! Oh my God!” Jeno let his mouth fall open to let out a silent scream of happiness, and grabbed Renjun’s hand, shaking it violently. Renjun shoved his hands away, face scrunched up in feigned disgust. But not even this could disrupt Jeno’s happiness right now, having just found out that his beloved cat was safe and not kidnapped by some evil eagle. 

“Oh my God, really, who is it?” Mark exclaimed, clasping his hands together in excitement, face breaking into a huge smile.

Before they could see the identity of the anonymous person who texted Jeno regarding Nana, the librarian came up to them, fuming. 

“Out.” The librarian put one hand on his hips, the other pointing towards the exit. “NOW.”

\--  
Jeno felt his entire body vibrate in excitement, his hands shaking from pure happiness. He grinned to himself, thinking about how he was finally, finally, going to be reunited with his beloved cat, once more.

Jeno walked alongside the hallways of dorm rooms, and eventually stops in front of a (add some description). Taking in a deep breathe, Jeno smiles to himself quietly and knocks lightly on the door. 

Jeno hears muffled noises of something crashing behind the door, and before he could even question about the safety of his beloved cat, the person who has held Nana captive for the time being appeared and, oh wow. 

A boy with tousled, slightly messy honey brown hair with the longest eyelashes Jeno has every seen on anyone popped out the door, and flashed a what Jeno could only describe as a 100 watt smile.

“Hi! I’m Jaemin, and I’m assuming you’re here for the cat?” Fuck, even his voice sounded hot. The boy continued to grin at Jeno, his eyes crinkling at the corner and Jeno berates himself for crushing on his cat’s supposed kidnapper.

Jeno could only stare at the attractive brown-haired boy with his mouth open, completely at a loss of words. His brain screamed at him to say something, just anything, but Jeno just couldn’t, stunned at the fact that he was standing in front of the most attractive boy he has ever seen in his 19 pathetic years. 

“Hello?” Jaemin spoke up again, breaking Jeno out of his trance, who stood up straight and fumbled with himself.

“I-I,” Jeno started stuttering, eyes looking at anywhere but the boy in front of him. Logically, Jeno would shut up and go into Jaemin’s dorm to collect his cat like any other normal human being world, but today, God was not in favour of Jeno. 

“Shit! Um, I actually remembered that I have a class to go to, so I gotta go. I’ll collect Nana later! Bye!” Sputtering, Jeno turned around and sprinted away, his face flushed with embarrassment and humiliation as he realised what he had just done. 

“Holy fuck,” Jeno heaved out, bracing himself against a wall in an attempt to catch his breath. “I’m a fucking piece of garbage.” Jeno is seriously so fucked. 

—  
His friends find out about it the next day.

“So…” Jeno started, biting at his lips. He felt his cheeks heat up just thinking about the pink-haired boy he had encountered the other day. “Do you guys know a Jaemin?” Jeno sat back, fiddling with his phone, trying his best to be subtle and not look too interested. 

They were currently back at the library, on their best behavior, especially since the librarian would not so subtly come up to check up on them every 5 minutes. 

His group of friends were all currently splayed all across the library table, either on their phones or just staring into space. They gathered to have a so-called “study date”, but obviously, that isn’t going very well. 

“Na Jaemin? Brown hair, brightest smile in the entire fucking world Jaemin?” Donghyuck piped up, his voice going even more high pitched as usual like it does when he gets excited. He put down his phone immediately, eyes suddenly lit with excitement. 

“..Yeah, I guess?”

“Oh yeah, that’s Na Jaemin. Markie, Injunnie and I know him from our marketing class,” It was times like this that Jeno really regrets being a history major (these times weren’t all that rare, to be completely honest), not being able to share a majority of classes with his best friends.

“What? Why haven’t you ever talked about him?” Jeno whipped his head around and slightly glared at Donghyuck through his bangs. It was a little too obvious, but hey, who could blame him when he just found out he could’ve met the cutest guy in the world ages ago?

“I have! It’s not my fault you never fucking listen to me.” Donghyuck frowns, his lips turned into an angry pout and throws a cushion towards Jeno, which Jeno catches, and hugs it to his chest. 

“Why, though?” Donghyuck rests his chin on both of his open hands, and stares at Donghyuck with an expression that reminds Jeno of a cat before it pounces on its prey. 

(Thinking about cats makes Jeno think about Nana, which makes his heart clench once more.) 

Renjun puts down his phone, looking straight at Jeno with a blank stare, an eyebrow raised. Again, reminding Jeno of a cat observing its prey intently before it decides to pounce. 

Under Donghyuck and Renjun’s threatening and intense stares, Jeno started to squirm in his chair, looking at everywhere except their direction. At this point, Mark has also pushed aside his homework, his eyebrows raised in curiosity. 

“Ah, well…” Jeno bites at his nails, trying to think of a way that would not result in his friends knowing about the details of his embarrassing encounter. “He contacted me and turns out he was the one who found Nana.” Jeno absentmindedly picked at the loose strands of the cushion, trying his very best not to look at Renjun.

“What?! Really? See, I told you Nana was in good hands!” Mark said in a hushed whisper, accidentally banging his hand against the table, which earned them another glare from the librarian. Mark immediately apologized, bowing his head towards the librarian, before speaking up again. “So how’d it go?” 

“Wait, I don’t remember seeing Nana back at home though?” Mark questioned without missing a beat, tilting his head. His expression reminded Jeno of the puppies in the “confused puppies compilation 2018” Jeno stayed up to watch on YouTube.

Jeno often wonders exactly how in the world did Donghyuck, Satan who takes a human form, managed to get a boyfriend like Mark. Who was so sweet and innocent, and everything Donghyuck wasn’t. 

“Yeah, well-” Jeno darted out his tongue and ran it across his lips and starts, trying to think of the best way to change the topic, even though his heart clenched at the thought of his missed opportunity to claim back Nana.

“You think he’s cute,” Renjun cut him off, smirking while twirling a pencil between his fingers. He looked at Donghyuck, the both of them exchanging a look which made Jeno squirm even more in his seat.

“You thought he was really cute and freaked out.” Donghyuck teased, his voice full of glee. 

Jeno flushed even harder, feeling the tips of his ears go red. He slid further down his chair as he thought back to the extremely attractive pink-haired boy who greeted him. Jeno continued to cringe, as he remembered how he literally stood there, staring at Jaemin with his mouth open, not knowing what to say, before running away because the one thing Jeno could not, for the love of God, do was talk to attractive, cute boys. Fuck, he didn’t even remember to take back Nana. 

“Wait guys, Jeno’s gay?” Mark interrupted Jeno’s train of thought. 

“Mark, I love you very much and I would die for you, but you are so fucking stupid,” Donghyuck rolls his eyes at Mark. Renjun sighs and shakes his head.

“W-what?” Jeno spluttered, “I never said I was gay!”

“Um, yeah, you did,” Renjun rolled his eyes, throwing yet another cushion at Jeno’s general direction. “First of all, we all know you’re now thirsting after Jaemin, don’t even try to lie. Second, when Mark asked if you were gay, you didn’t answer immediately to defend your straightness, which is what a heterosexual bro would do. So ha! You’re gay.” Renjun finishes, crosses his arms and crooks one eyebrow at Jeno, whose face colour now resembles a tomato. 

Jeno hides his hands in his face, letting out a defeated cry. “What? That literally makes no sense! Renjun! Shut the fuck up.” He mutters, not really sure if Renjun even heard him.

“Okay, okay,” Donghyuck interrupted and clicks his tongue in annoyance. “So what happened with Jaemin? And don’t say “nothing”, because we all know that’s a fucking lie.”

Jeno looked up, only to find his three friends (he’s not too sure about that anymore) looking back at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Jeno groaned, before giving in and recounted yesterday’s event. 

“So, that was fucking embarrassing,” Jeno felt the tip of his ears go red as he was forced to relive those traumatic experiences. “I didn’t even get Nana back,” Jeno finished with a pout. 

The three of his friends went silent for a moment, before erupting into laughter. 

“Stop fucking laughing!” Jeno hissed, eyes travelling to the frowning librarian walking towards them.

“Dude, that’s so bad, like, actually so fucking bad.” Mark wheezed and Jeno couldn’t help but bury his face into his hands, hoping his friends won’t catch on his embarrassment. “I can’t believe you already have a crush on Jaemin,”

“I don’t have a crush on him!” Jeno spluttered, (write an action) 

“Holy shit, you’re hopeless,” Donghyuck teases, before continuing. “He’s totally your type, though.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll think of a plan for you,” Donghyuck hit Jeno on the shoulder, flashing him a menacing smile that could possibly mean no good.

Before Jeno could question Donghyuck about what he meant, he found himself being kicked out of the library for the second time in that week. 

\--

“No, fuck you guys, I’m leaving, bye.” Jeno turned around to make his departure, before someone, Renjun, wrapped his arm around Jeno’s neck, putting him in a chokehold and pulled him back, his iron grip restricting Jeno’s every movement. 

“No fucking way, you’re coming with us, and you’re talking to Jaemin.” Jeno looked up, only to see Renjun smirking and Donghyuck laughing. 

It was early October, the season finally evolving into autumn, and the weather was gradually cooling down. Jeno and his friends decided that it was too nice of a day to spend it holed up in their dorm, so they decided to go out to have a nice hangout. 

Or so Jeno thought, as he is being dragged to a nearby cafe, a very recognizable pink-haired boy working at the cashier. 

Jeno turned to Mark, who only shook his head apologetically and looked down, knowing that there was no way he could stop these two from doing whatever they were planning. 

“What? Fuck you guys! You guys planned this!” Jeno looked around frantically, struggling in Renjun’s surprisingly strong hold. Jeno dug his heels as hard as he could onto the floor, which does nothing in comparison to Renjun’s iron grip.

“No, stop!” 

“What about Nana?” Donghyuck asked in a sickeningly sweet voice, pouting at Jeno, and looked at him with his infamous puppy eyes. “Nana must be so sad right now, thinking that you’ve just abandoned him.”

“Yeah, I bet he’s wondering where you are, like all the time.” Renjun added on, not helping the situation at all. Renjun and Donghyuck really were like little demons when they worked together. 

“But! That can be solved, if you stop being a pussy ass bitch and go in to talk to Jaemin about Nana. And possibly score a date with him.” Renjun tugged harder at Jeno’s wrist, pulling him towards the café that they were dangerously close to.

Upon hearing Nana’s name, Jeno went limp and stopped fighting against Renjun. These guys knew Jeno’s weak spot, and they were right. He needed to do this for Nana. 

Even if it means embarrassing the fuck out of himself again in front of hot pink-haired boy Na Jaemin. 

“This can’t be as bad as the time when you bleached your hair, and your hair got so damaged you had to cut it off and ended up looking like a chestnut.” Mark, the traitor finally spoke up, wringing his hands, looking like a guilty puppy.

“…You know, I really hate it that you’re right, Mark.”

“You’re gonna thank me later,” Donghyuck winks at Jeno, before confidently pushing open the café door.

“Hey Jaemin!” Donghyuck shouts, “I didn’t know you worked here!” Donghyuck feigns innocence, smirking at Jeno.

Jaemin shoots up at the sound of the newcomers, and his eyes widened for the slightest moment before a slow, sly, grin spread across his face as his eyes land on Jeno. 

“Yeah, I just started working here last week,” Hearing the sound of Jaemin’s voice only makes Jeno want to die more. He contemplates risking it all and just dashing out of the café. 

As if reading his mind, Renjun tightens his hold on Jeno. 

Renjun and Mark go in, waving at Jaemin, while Jeno trails behind them, head down, wishing he could somehow become invisible.

Jeno refuses to look up and make eye contact with the unfairly hot barista. Until Donghyuck spoke up and single handedly ruined his life. 

“Not sure if you two have met but, Jeno, this is Jaemin. Jaemin, this is Jeno.” Jeno shot up, cursing at Donghyuck, who merely laughed and skipped away. He looks even shadier, as Donghyuck takes a sip of his coffee dramatically, wiggling his eyebrows at Jeno. 

Jeno wants to die. 

“Hello, may I take your order please?” Jeno whipped his head around from mouthing various curse words at Donghyuck when a certain boy with bright ass pink hair speaks up. 

Jeno finally looks up, and looks right into Jaemin’s eyes, which he instantly regrets. Jaemin wore a basic white button up shirt underneath his apron. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows (Jeno’s mouth was suddenly really dry). He looks at Jeno, a small smirk on his face, as he reaches up to run a hand through his perfectly soft, honey brown hair.

Jeno quickly looks away, crossing his arms across himself, as he feels the temperature in the cafe rise by a few degrees.

“<3 Jaemin <3” (idk man i’ll somehow figure out how to put hearts). Jeno groaned to himself on the inside. Not only was Jaemin hot as fuck, but he was also the most adorable person that Jeno has ever met. If Jeno wasn’t too busy trying not to melt into a puddle, he would be cooing inwardly at Jaemin.

“Hello? I asked for your order?” Jaemin smiled at Jeno, a playful glint in his eyes. 

“I-I’m so sorry for running away the other day! It was really disrespectful and rude of me, I know! And really weird and awkward! And very rude. But, uh, I only freaked out because you were so cute and I can’t believe I even forgot about Nana-” 

“Jeno,” Jaemin cuts him off, softly chuckling to himself. “You’re rambling.” 

“Oh, um, I’m so sorry-”

“Also, did you just say that you freaked out because I was so cute?” Jaemin laughed softly, covering his mouth with his hand, his eyes crinkling. 

“Oh my God,” Jeno’s eyes widen, and he covers his face with his hands, feeling every single cell in his body cringe. “That was so embarrassing. Fuck.” 

“I still need your order,” Jaemin asked with raised eyebrows, waving an empty coffee cup around in the air. Jeno caught glimpse of “Jeno <3” scribbled in messy handwriting on the side of the paper cup, and felt his heart skip a beat at the sight.

“Uh, an iced Americano, please,” Jeno smiled shyly at Jaemin, casting a glance at him through his bangs, not daring to look directly at the glowing boy. 

“So…, you wanna go back to mine later?” Jeno chokes on his own spit and feels a blush creeping up his neck at the implications of the words that have just left Jaemin’s mouth. “It’s for Fel-, Nana! No funny business. Yet,” Jaemin asked in a playful tone, winking at Jeno, whose cheeks started to burn even more at the playful comment. 

Jeno looks up, only to see Jaemin still smiling at him with bright eyes, still waiting for a response. 

“Um, yeah! Sure, of course, that’ll be… that’ll be great.”

“Great!” Jaemin flashed a smile at Jeno, which Jeno could only describe as a “100 watt smile”. “I end in about 10 minutes, I’ll come find you later?”

“Okay,” Jeno walked back to the table with his friends, his hands slightly trembling from excitement and anticipation. Holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck-

“So, how was it?”

Jeno remained silent for 5 seconds, staring into space and not moving a single muscle. Then suddenly, he drops onto the chair next to Renjun’s dramatically, slapping a hand over his face. “Guys, I’m gay.” Jeno mutters through his fingers.

“Congratulations.” Renjun starts clapping. 

“Wow! Jeno finally got over his homophobia and admits that he’s gay. Another win for the gays!”

“Wait, so did you get his number? Or did he give you his,” Mark asked.

“Jeno already has his number, dumbass, Jaemin texted him.” Renjun hit Mark on the shoulders, who jutted forward violently, shaking the entire table and almost made Donghyuck spill his drink. Donghyuck flips Mark off.

“Oh, yeah,” Mark responded meekly, deciding that it would be best if he just shut up and sit back.

Jeno rises from the dead and speaks. “Um,” Jeno began, “He said he finishes in 10, so,” Jeno scratches the back of his head, refusing to meet any of his friends’ piercing gazes. “I guess I’m going to his dorm later? Haha.” He laughs nervously scratching the back of his head, and watches as his friends’ expression morph into one of shock and excitement.

“For Nana.” Jeno clears his throat cautiously, after a few moments of silence that passed over them.

“Oh my God, I knew it! You definitely like him.” Renjun

“Are you going to suck his dick? Don’t suck his dick in front of Nana, please, he’s too cute and innocent for this,” Mark pleads, sounding genuinely concerned, his big eyes blown even wider. Jeno splutters, but before he could even get a response in, the rest started speaking.

“You’re sucking his dick this fast?” Donghyuck chimed in, slapping Jeno’s shoulder.

“You should only suck dick on the third date, at least. Okay, to be fair Mark and I-” Donghyuck proclaims very loudly, and Jeno immediately flushes and rushes forward to force a hand against Donghyuck’s mouth to shut him up. 

“Shut up! He can hear you!” Jeno proclaimed loudly. “Also, I don’t want to hear about the details regarding which exact moment you sucked Mark’s dick for the first time! That’s disgusting,”

“First of all, rude, me sucking Mark’s dick is too hot for you to handle,” mark chokes, “Second of all, he’s into you. Trust me. I can sense whenever a gay is into another gay. It’s a superior gay thing, you know?”

“So in conclusion, Jeno can definitely get that dick! It’s about time you got laid anyways. Like, a good lay. Remember the last person you-”.

“Jeno,” Jeno whipped his head around, and there Jaemin was, in all his boyish glory.

“Jeno,” Jaemin repeats, flashing Jeno a 100 watt smile. “You ready?” 

“Yeah,” Jeno couldn’t help but shoot back a small, shy, smile, finding the other boy’s happiness extremely contagious. 

“Oh my God,” The moment was suddenly broken by Donghyuck’s loud voice. “Get a fucking room,” Jeno turned around, shooting Donghyuck a glare and raised his middle finger at the boy, trying to ignore the blush rising up his neck.

Jeno stood up hastily, taking his things and bolted for the door, not daring to look at Jaemin’s reaction. 

It was a few moments of silence, as Jeno trailed behind Jaemin, too embarrassed to speak up. Jeno looked down, feigning extreme interest in his shoes, trying to think of something, anything, to say, in order to break this seemingly awkward silence.

“So,” Jaemin finally spoke up, and when Jeno raised his head to look at the boy, he was greeted with a slight smirk on Jaemin’s face. “Do you always run away from cute boys?”

“Oh my God,” Jeno buried his face in his hands, feeling the tops of his ears turn red. “This is so humiliating,” 

At his embarrassment, Jaemin threw his head back, his whole body shaking with laughter

Speaking to Jaemin feels surprisingly natural and easy, and Jeno was quick to find that the boy was a great conversationalist. Jeno found it surprisingly easy to open up, and he talked endlessly about his cat, his classes, his family. 

At the back of his mind, Jeno thought about how well his introverted and shy personality complimented Jaemin’s outgoing and bubbly personality, and felt someone warm spread within his chest. 

“It’s such a shame, really.” Jeno sighed, adjusting the straps of his bags. Jaemin turned over to look at him, a concerned look on his face. “Ever since I started attending uni I haven’t had much time to spend with Nana anymore, I really hope he isn’t lonely when I’m not around.” 

Jeno pouted at the thought of Nana roaming around his dorm, meowing for Jeno, not knowing where he is. 

“I can help you take care of him when you’re not around,” Jaemin spoke up, interrupting Jeno’s train of thought. “Only if you want, of course.” Jaemin reached up to scratch the back of his head, and for the first time, Jaemin looked slightly flustered, a dust of red painted over his cheeks.

“Really? You would do that?” 

“Yeah, of course! Nana is so cute, and not gonna lie, I’ve already grown attached to him. So actually, it’s a plus for me if I got to see him regularly.”

“Besides, I’m quite free most days, honestly. That’s why I took up the job at the cafe,” 

“Oh wow, you’re a true lifesaver! Thank you so much for agreeing to this!”

“It’s really no problem,” Jaemin shot Jeno a wide grin. “We’re here!” Jaemin inserted his key into the doorknob, and Jeno felt his heart rate increase in anticipation, finally getting to see Nana in so long. 

“Nana!” Jeno yelled, spotting his beloved cat which he had missed so much for days. At the sight of Jeno, Nana immediately sprinted and leaped into Jeno’s arms, and started rubbing its head against Jeno’s chin. 

“Nana, oh my God,” Jeno beamed, kissing the top of his cat’s head. “I missed you so much, you have no idea.” 

At that, Nana reached forward to lick at Jeno’s fingers, clearly having missed its owner as much. Jaemin smiled softly at the reunion, inwardly squealing at how cute Jeno was being. 

“Oh my God, Jaemin,” Jeno said, finally turning his attention back onto Jaemin. “Thank you so much for finding him, I really don’t know what I would’ve done if something happened to him…”

“It’s no problem!” Jaemin beamed at Jeno, crouching down to pet Nana, who nuzzled Jaemin’s hand in response. “Nana was excellent company, I must say.”

—

Another day, another moment of Jeno getting absolutely grilled by his annoying friends about the newest developments with a certain boy. This time, they were gathered at Jeno and Mark’s dorm for their weekly ritual of movie night, which had somehow turned into a Jeno-roasting session. 

“So you’re meaning to tell me that you went to Jaemin’s dorm to get Nana, and he offered you to be your catsitter, when you know damn well that Nana is perfectly fine when you’re not there?” Donghyuck asked, sarcasm dripping in his voice. 

“That is not true! Nana feels lonely. And I’m doing Jaemin a favour. He said he misses Nana.” Jeno cleared his throat, only to be met with two pairs of eyes boring into his soul. 

“You know Mark lives with you, right?”

“Yeah dude, don’t forget about me, your lifelong dorm mate just for some guy,” Mark smirks at Jeno gleefully, who only rolls his eyes in response.

“Mark! You’re supposed to be on my side! But y-yeah! I know that! So what! I’m talking about when both me and Mark aren’t home, what’s Nana gonna do then, huh?”

“Oh my God,” Donghyuck groaned, “Just say you want to see Jaemin and go,”

“Shut the fuck up, Donhyuck! Don’t act like you were any better when you were still thirsting after Mark,” Jeno said in an attempt to defend himself. 

“First of all, the fact that you didn’t deny what I just said proves that I’m completely right. Second of all, I’m the one who’s in a happy relationship, so,” Donghyuck sticks his tongue out at Jeno and proceeded to drape himself all over Mark, who reciprocated by slinging an arm over Donghyuck’s waist. Disgusting. 

“Ugh,” Jeno muttered, knowing that Donghyuck was right. “I hate you,”

“Anyways, dude, that’s gay,” Renjun spoke up, stealing a chip off Jeno’s bowl. Jeno scowled, slapping Renjun away, who merely ignored him and took another handful of chips. “Like, pretty fucking gay.” 

“No, it’s not! I just want the best for Nana!”

“My fucking ass, this is so gay,” Donghyuck drawled on, draping himself over Mark’s shoulders. “You’re gay, he’s gay-, well, bisexual, and-”

“Wait, wait,” Jeno interrupted Donghyuck abruptly, “Jaemin’s into guys?”

“Oh, my God,” Renjun exclaimed. “Are you serious?”

“Jeno, I knew you were dense and all, but I didn’t think you were this bad, holy shit.”

“He was so blatantly flirting with you! Tell me, what kind of heterosexual bro would offer to be someone’s catsitter,”

“So, do you like him?” At that, Jeno fell silent for a few seconds, face visibly reddening, before he cleared his throat and spoke up again.

“I mean,” Jeno said, “He is like, really hot, and cute, and he’s really nice! And he likes Nana, so,” At that, Renjun and Donghyuck crossed their arms, raising an eyebrow at Jeno. Finally, Renjun rolled his eyes, and broke the silence.

“Right, I bet in two months, you guys are gonna be a thing.” 

“Seriously? I bet one month,”

“What? There’s no way Jeno would get his head out of his ass-”

“Guys!” Jeno spluttered, reaching forward to smack Renjun, who slapped Jeno even harder. “I’m still here!”

“Okay, but seriously though,” Renjun said, reaching over. “If you like him, you should go for it.”

“I don’t like him!” Jeno was met with two pairs of eyes staring back at him. “I met him literally 4 days ago!” 

“I mean, I don’t like him now because we’ve only known each other properly for like, 4 days? But, I guess he is my type.” Jeno pouted, knowing that there was no way he could lie to Donghyuck and Renjun about how he felt. 

“I knew it,” Renjun smirked. “I knew he was your type the instant you told me you ran away from him,” 

“Whatever dude,” Donghyuck rolled his eyes at Jeno. “You’re being so dramatic. So what if you have a crush on him? It’s just a crush.” Beside him, Renjun hummed in agreement.

Jeno sits up, breaking his chip into two. “You’re right. Maybe I should actually ask him to look after Nana,” Renjun snorts. “To like, talk to him more and stuff.”

“That’s right!” Donghyuck slaps Jeno on the back, causing him to almost choke on his own saliva. “This is the confident gay Jeno I’ve been waiting for!” 

Jeno huffs out in annoyance, before reverting back to complaining about his lessons, trying to ignore his persistent thoughts about a certain boy who found his cat. 

\--

Jeno:  
Hey, this is Jeno!

Jaeminnn:  
Hi Jeno!!  
I was wondering what took you so long to finally text me :((

At that, Jeno couldn’t help but smile, feeling his heart flutter. Jeno bit his lip in an attempt to stop smiling, and took a deep breath before typing back a response to Jaemin.

Jeno:  
!! hdkjhsgd sorry i was just swamped with work :((

Jaeminnn:  
cute  
Anyways wat brings u here into my messages today? ;D

Jeno:  
Jhgksjhd dont call me that  
Anyways  
U know how u offered to catsit Nana hehe  
Is it ok if u helped me take care of Nana tmr??  
I’m so sorry i know you’re probably super busy with school and stuff but im not going to be home the entire day so is mark :((  
Its ok if u cant tho!! I totally understand if ur too busy

Jaeminnn:  
Omg jeno ur too cute  
Of course I’ll look after Nana!  
I miss him so much anyways :((

Jeno:  
Omg rly!!  
Omg that would be great thank u so much jaemin <3

Jaeminnn:  
No worries ~  
I’ll come by your dorm at 9 tmr?

Jeno:  
Ok!!!  
Thank u so much again Jaemin!!  
See u tmr

Jaeminnn:  
See u tmr <3

Jeno smiled pathetically to himself like a middle school girl dealing with her first crush as he sees the heart that Jaemin sent. Not knowing what else to do, Jeno opened his chats with his group of friends. 

JeNO:  
omguhfgshjfghsgj fuckkkk  
!!!! fellas is it gay  
Hyuckie:  
yes

Injunnie:  
yes

Markly:  
yes  
JeNO:  
omg assholes i didnt even say what happened 

Hyuckie:  
its always gay bro  
wat happened LOL

Injunnie:  
i bet this is about Jaemin 

JeNO:  
omg i asked jaemin to catsit Nana and he called me cute and sent me a heart emoji AHHHHHHH

Hyuckie:  
WHAT

Markly:  
o thats kinda gay tbh

Injunnie:  
See i knew it was about Jaemin

Hyuckie:  
SHUT UP RENJUN  
holy shit does that mean hes coming over to ur dorm tmr !!!!  
omg jeno is getting dicked down

JeNO:  
omg wtf!!! Shut up ur so disgusting  
I hate u guys bye  
Markly:  
have fun w jaemin!! 

—

The next day, Jeno hears someone knock on his door at about 9. Feeling his heart quicken, he hastily stands up and run his fingers through his hair a few times, before walking up to the door, revealing a Jaemin wearing a “1000 watt smile”, as Jeno would describe. 

“Hey, Jeno,” Jaemin waves at Jeno, who returns a small smile. As if on cue, Nana meows, circling around Jaemin’s legs, rubbing his head against Jaemin’s legs, purring loudly. 

“Hello, Felix,” Jaemin sets down his bag on the floor, crouching down to Nana’s level to gently catch the cat’s chin. Jeno watched as Nana slowly closed its eyes, raising its chin up for Jaemin to have better access. It was fucking adorable. 

“Felix?” Jeno questions, tilting his head in confusion at Jaemin.

“Oh oops! I totally forgot,” Jaemin chuckled. “I just gave Nana my own name when I first met him because well, I didn’t know his name,” 

“Oh,” Jeno replies mindlessly. “That’s cute,” 

“Oh?” Jaemin raised his eyebrows, smirking at Jeno, all while still petting Nana. Immediately, Jeno flushed, before looking away. 

“Shut up, Jaemin,” 

“Anyways, sorry for the mess,” Jeno apologizes, gesturing for Jaemin to sit down somewhere on the couch.

“It’s no problem,” Jaemin replies softly, holding Nana close to his chest, settling down on the couch. 

“So, um,” Jeno cleared his throat, feeling awkward as he realised he has just been staring at Jaemin mindlessly too long to be socially acceptable. “Really, thank you so much for taking care of Nana, I know you’re like, really busy an-” 

“Jeno,” Jaemin cuts off Jeno’s rambling, taking one of Jeno’s hands in his own. “It’s fine, it’s not like I’m doing anything anyways,” 

“Besides, how can I resist a cute boy asking me to take care of his cute cat?” Jaemin sends Jeno one final wink, before reaching over to his bag to fetch out his laptop.

“Now shoo! I’m just going to catch up on some work while I pet Nana for 3 hours straight. Go do whatever you need to do!”

“...Okay, then. I’ll get going now. See you later, Jaemin.”

“See you!”

Jeno felt his cheeks start to burn up instantly as he closed his dorm door and he forced himself to take a few deep breaths before heading for his class. Jeno was so fucked.

—

They start working it out.

It eventually leads up to Jaemin coming over almost daily, using “I want to see Nana!” as an excuse to come over to Jeno’s dorm. 

Over the span of 2 months, the two boys have gotten closer and closer, till the point they were inseparable. 

It was also the time where Jeno’s feelings for Jaemin have become undeniably strong. And Jeno being Jeno, panics internally and decides to do absolutely nothing about his feelings for Jaemin. 

It was a nice afternoon, right when September transitions into October, and the temperature was slowly decreasing, indicating the arrival of fall. With rays of sunlight shooting down from in between the clouds, and the leaves on the trees start to turn brown, it was a beautiful Friday afternoon. 

It happens after Jeno’s final exam. 

Something about Renjun and Jeno hanging out bc I love Renjun so much bby boy i luv u so much come to hong kong pls <3

“So,” Renjun brings his straw to his mouth and takes a sip. “What’s up with you?” 

Jeno looks up, turns his attention back to Renjun, only finding Renjun staring back at him with a concerned expression. He never showed it, but Renjun cared a lot for his friends and the people around him, and Jeno finds himself to be experiencing that right now. 

“Renjun, oh my God,” Jeno suddenly exclaimed, burying his head into his hands. “I think I like Jaemin,”

“And?” Renjun pauses. He brings up the straw to his mouth again and takes another sip. 

“What? Aren’t you supposed to act surprised or something?” 

“Dude, are you serious?” Renjun scowls, “We all saw this coming like, the moment you first mentioned Jaemin.” 

“What…” Jeno pouts and reaches over to steal a piece of Renjun’s chocolate muffin, stuffing it into his mouth sadly. “So what should I do, then?” 

“Maybe you can confess? Like a normal person?” Renjun tuts, drumming his fingers along the metal table mindless, raising his eyebrows at Jeno. 

“But Renjun,” Jeno continues to whine, “That’s so scary,” 

“Holy fuck, you are even more pathetic than I thought,” Jeno sits up, shoulders slumped down and begans to protest, before Renjun spoke up again. 

“Well, if it makes you feel better, and just to clarify, I’m not just saying this because I’m your best friend,” Renjun tears off another piece of his muffin, popping it into his mouth before smirking at Jeno. “But I think he likes you too,” 

“No way,” Jeno replies instantly. A moment of silence falls over them. Jeno hears Renjun sigh and put down his drink and flicks at Jeno’s arm. 

“Yes way, you dumbass. You need to have more fucking faith in yourself. Have you seen the way he looks at you?”

“No? Why would I ever see how he looks at me, that’s like, physically impossible.” Jeno interjects. Renjun lets out a groan. 

“I hate your bitch ass so much sometimes, Jeno.” Renjun glares back at Jeno, who merely giggles in response. 

Renjun eyebrows screws“Just - God, I swear you’re doing this to make me compliment you, you attention whore. But have some faith in yourself, okay? You’re a great catch,”

“I know, I know,” Jeno waves his hand around, before smiling at Renjun once again. “I’m just… trying to figure out how I should let him know, you know?” 

“So does this mean you’ll do it?” Renjun interjects. 

“I mean…, I guess?” Jeno ponders the thought of confessing for a moment, and inwardly cringes, because there is absolutely no way that will go smoothly, or however he plans. 

“Great!” Renjun suddenly slams down his fork. “Now buy me a tea,”

“W-what? And why would I do that?” 

“Because I just helped you figure you gay shit out?” Renjun doesn’t even wait for a response before grabbing at Jeno’s bag, fishing out his wallet. Jeno could only sit there helplessly while he watches Renjun use his own hard earned cash to buy yet another drink.

Jeno lets his mind wander, and ponders the different way he could confess to Jaemin without making an absolute for himself. He just needed to wait for a right moment. 

\--  
The moment comes right after Jeno’s exams. 

Exams have totally kicked Jeno’s ass, and he has finally somehow managed to survive his final history exams just barely and honestly, he’s tired. Jeno’s exhausted, running on 2 hours of sleep, and all he wants to do is go back to his dorm and pet Nana till he fell asleep to the sound of his purring. 

Jeno opens his door, and instantly smiles at the sight of Nana all curled up at the corner of his bed, chin resting on one of Jeno’s pillows. 

Jeno crosses over to his bed, taking off his bags and finally changing into his more comfortable pajamas before settling down on his bed. He reaches a hand over to stroke at Nana’s head. 

“Hi baby,” Jeno whispers, continuing to stroke at Nana’s head. Nana gave no response to Jeno’s touch, not opening his eyes or giving signs of even the slightest movement, which was weird, considering that an affectionate cat like Nana always responded to even the slightest touch. 

“Nana?” Jeno sat up, brows furrowed together and started gently shaking the gray cat. Still no response. “Nana.” Jeno said, with an added sense of urgency to his voice, now shaking his cat with even more force. Still, no response or the slightest movement from Nana.

Jeno felt his heart sank, and he felt his heart immediately start to quicken as he felt something unpleasant spread across his chest. Refusing to give up, he continued shaking Nana with trembling hands. 

“Nana! Wake up! Nana, what happened to you?” After a minute of still no response from his cat, Jeno started to panic, his breathing quickened and his eyes start to water. Not knowing what to do, Jeno feverishly searched for his phone, finally finding it hidden in the pocket of his jacket. Tossing his jacket to the other side of the room, his fingers fumbled until they landed on the contact of a certain someone, a someone who Jeno only knew to call in times of emergency like this.

“Hello?” At the sound of Jaemin’s comforting voice, Jeno couldn’t help but instantly breaking down into sobs, sobbing so hard that he couldn’t even breathe. 

“Jeno? What’s wrong?” At the sound of Jeno’s sobbing, Jaemin’s voice turned more urgent and panicked, which prompted even more tears from Jeno. 

“Jaemin, Nana, N-nana-” Jeno chokes over his words, the feeling of panic, sadness, and relieve upon hearing Jaemin’s voice crashing over and overwhelming him, to the point where Jeno can’t even breathe or speak properly. 

“Hey, hey, Jeno, you’re alright, calm down. What happened to Nana?” 

“I-I don’t fucking know! I came home and Nana is not responding to me, he’s just laying there, and I can’t get him to wake up! I don’t know what happened to him!” 

“Jaemin, I-I don’t know what to fucking- fucking do, I don’t know what to do,”

“Jeno, it’s going to be okay, I’m coming over now,” 

It’s syncope. 

According to the vet, syncope is a temporary loss of consciousness caused by emotional stress, in the case of Nana. 

Jeno and Jaemin were now back in Jeno’s dorm after hours spent at the vet, with Jeno endlessly panicking and crying, and Jaemin attempting the stop the boy’s tears. 

Jeno lets Nana off to rest, and he feels someone touch his back. Jeno turns around to face Jaemin, before throwing himself into Jaemin’s arms, burying his face into the crook of Jaemin’s neck. 

“Where’s this coming from?” Jaemin asks softly, stroking Jeno’s hair comfortingly. Jeno breaths in, and Jaemin smells like strawberries, and everything that Jeno has ever wanted. 

“Thank you,” Jeno mumbles into the crook of Jaemin’s neck. “Thank you for being there for me.”

“Its no problem, Jeno.” Jaemin presses a chaste kiss into Jeno’s hair, and wraps his arms around Jeno even tighter. Months and months of hidden and unspoken feeling threatened to bubble out of Jeno’s mouth, and-. This is it. This is the moment where Jeno was finally going to do it. 

“Jaemin,” Jeno took a deep breath in, eyes trained on the ground. He felt Jaemin’s curious stare at him, and felt his heart start to beat even faster. There was no going back now. 

“Jaemin,” Jeno repeated, swallowing hard, refusing to just say fuck it and give up, because he’s come so far. 

“Yes, Jeno?” Jaemin looked up, the sunlight hitting his face, accentuating his charming looks even more, and god, Jaemin looked like he was glowing. 

“I, I-”

“Jeno, are you trying to confess?” Jeno whipped his head up to look at Jaemin, his eyes widening and his heart quickening. Out of everything he was anticipating to come out of Jaemin’s mouth, that definitely was not it.

“What?” Jeno managed to let out weakly, his mouth hanging wide open. 

“Jeno,” Jaemin laughed. “You were being so obvious.” At that, Jeno felt every single bit of his soul left his body, and a wave of humiliation crashed over him instantly. 

“I-I was?” Before Jeno could say anything more, Jaemin took Jeno’s face in his hands and squeezed both of his cheeks, so that Jeno couldn’t say anything. 

“Oh Jeno,” Jaemin cooed at Jeno, who could only gargle in protest and embarrassment. “You’re so cute,”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure if you were interested in me, but after I offered to be your freaking catsitter, and you actually agreed, I just knew. And I dropped so many hints! I blatantly flirted with you every time I saw you, ” Jaemin finally released Jeno’s face, and instead, took both of Jeno’s hands. 

At this point, Jeno felt so embarrassed and stunned that he physically could not say a word, and instead opened and closed his mouth like a fish, gaping at Jaemin. 

“I like you too, Jeno,” Jaemin coaxed Jeno’s hands open, slipping his fingers through Jeno’s. “And I want to take you out on a proper date, if you would let me?” 

Jeno continued gaping at Jaemin with wide eyes, before realizing that Jaemin was looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. 

“Yes! Oh my fucking God, yes! Oh my God, I don’t even know what’s going on now, what-” Jeno stopped speaking when he felt a pair of soft lips against his, barely touching him. The feeling was gone as soon as it came, and Jeno couldn’t even register what was happening until he watched Jaemin pull away. 

“You’re so cute when you ramble,” Jaemin cradled Jeno’s face with one hand, eyes twinkling as he continued smiling at Jeno. 

Jeno’s mind was running at 100km per hour. Seriously, what the fuck was going on? Did Jaemin just kiss him? 

“I really like you,” was all Jeno could manage to blurt out, before blushing and covering his face with his hands out of embarrassment of what he just said.

Jeno hears Jaemin giggle softly, before gently prying away Jeno’s hands from his face. Jeno felt Jaemin’s fingers on his chin, tilting his head up, forcing Jeno to look straight at Jaemin’s face. Realizing how close their faces are, Jeno unconsciously glanced down at Jaemin’s lips, before looking back up into Jaemin’s intense gaze. 

“I’m gonna kiss you again,” Jaemin said. “Is that okay?” Jeno frantically nodded, and that was all the response Jaemin needed before leaning back in to press their lips together once again. 

It’s a short, innocent kiss, their lips moving gently against each other. Jeno reaches up to grab at Jaemin’s shirt, his heart threatening to jump out of his chest. 

They pull apart to breathe, and Jaemin breaks into a huge grin, before pulling Jeno back into his chest, his arms circling around Jeno’s waist. “You have no idea how much I imagined this.” 

“Really?” Jeno looked up shyly at Jaemin, biting back a smile before burying his head back into Jaemin’s chest. “Me too,” 

“Jaemin?” Jeno asks after a few quiet moments, his voice muffled against Jaemin’s skin. 

“Yeah?” Jaemin answers.

Jeno pulls slightly away from Jaemin and looks at his with a shy smile. “Does this…”, Jeno pauses. “Does this mean you would date me?” 

Jaemin laughs, crading Jeno’s face in his hands once again. “You’re so cute,” Jaemin leaves a kiss on Jeno’s nose. “Of course I will,” 

Jeno beams at Jaemin, his eyes crinkling into small crescents and takes slots their hands together. “Our friends are going to freak out when they hear about this.” 

—  
As expected, Renjun and Donghyuck absolutely loses their shit when Jeno tells them the next day.

Before Jeno could even finish speaking his sentence, Renjun and Donghyuck slammed their hands on the table, attracting the attention of the entire cafeteria.

“Tell me everything,” Renjun says with an evil glint in his eye.

“Can you believe he knew I liked him before I told him? Isn’t that crazy?” Jeno giggled, ignoring Renjun and Donghyuck’s endless interrogations, poking at his lunch mindlessly.

“Sorry to break it to you, but literally everyone knew you liked him,” Renjun sat back and crossed his arms, rolling his eyes at Jeno.

“Yeah, you were like, really fucking obvious about it,” Before Jeno could say anything to defend himself, he was cut off by a certain presence settling into the seat next to him. 

“Hi guys,” Jaemin beamed at the boys, running his hand through his hair. “Hi Jeno,” Jaemin squeezes Jeno’s hand in greeting, and Jeno felt his heart pick up immediately. 

“Wow, Jeno gets a special greeting, and not us?” Donghyuck teased, smirking at Jeno and Jaemin, whose hands were now linked together. 

“Of course,” Jaemin placed his head on Jeno’s shoulder. “None of you are as cute as Jeno,” With that, Jeno planted a kiss on Jeno’s cheek.

“Oh my God, you guys are fucking revolting.” Renjun began, picking up his things to leave with Donghyuck. “I hate you guys,”

“We love you too!” Jaemin responded, raising a middle finger to Renjun and Donghyuck in response.

“We are pretty disgusting, aren’t we?” Jaemin placed his chin on his hand, his eyes darting down to look at Jeno’s lips. 

Jeno didn’t respond, and merely closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss Jaemin on the lips this time. Jeno silently thanked Nana for running out of his dorm that night, and couldn’t help but feel like he was the luckiest boy ever, because what more does a boy needs, other than a cute boyfriend and the cutest cat in the world?

**Author's Note:**

> #00_184
> 
> AHHH this was SO rushed towards the end because I really overestimated my abilities to keep up with deadlines along with school stuff!! 
> 
> I just want to say a massive thank you to admin tea for hosting this event and to my prompter for such a cute prompt!! I LOVED writing the beginning scenes of this. Lastly, a HUGE thank you to my beta ;;; I know I was really shitty and left u in the dark for so long but I just wanted to thank you for giving me suggestions and without you, I probably would've never gotten around my writer's block. :((
> 
> ANYWAYS I hope everyone enjoys this!! I had so much fun writing the cat scenes and Jeno with cats just make me so!! ENJOY!


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